As is well known, manufactured lamp shades generally come prepackaged with lamps, and are typically of a solid white color or some variation thereof. Lamp shades that are sold independently of lamps generally come in the same color and pattern as those that come included with lamps--not allowing for creativity. This makes the coordination of a lamp shade's color with the remainder of the room's decor a frustrating exercise unless one desires it to be "white". However, it is often desired to have the lamp shade covered in a material identical to other pieces of furniture or accessories in the room--whether they be couches, curtains, pillows or bedding. To deal with this problem, others in the field have offered lamp shade modification kits for the securement of user selected fabrics.
Most of these kits require the user to glue the desired fabric to a manufactured lamp shade, thereby permanently altering it. A problem exists furthermore, when using glue, in that it is very important to have the fabric perfectly aligned with the lamp shade prior to adhesion because, otherwise, subsequent adjustment is difficult or even destructive to the fabric and/or lamp shade. The glue, additionally, affects the translucency of the lamp shade and is visible when the lamp is on, thereby defeating any visual enhancement the decorative fabric may have added. An additional problem that exists with kits that employ the use of glue is that a subsequent desire to return to the original lamp shade color is impossible since the glue is destructive to the underlying lamp shade.
Other kits of similar types use elastic and draw strings as a means for securing fabric to the manufactured lamp shade. These require the user to have access to a sewing machine and possess some amount of skill. In these kits, a person is required to sew the fabric in such a way so as to create a channel along the top and bottom of the fabric and subsequently feed either the elastic or string through that channel. Needless to say, it is a difficult, time consuming process to work either of these through a long narrow cloth channel. Once the elastic, or string is fed through the channel, the user ties it off over the lamp shade so that the resulting opening of the decorative fabric is smaller than that of the manufactured lamp shade--thereby keeping it in place. Since the resulting opening is smaller than the manufactured lamp shade opening, there exists an overhang of fabric at both the top and bottom which is visible to the viewer. Additionally, since the fabric is not anchored to the elastic or string itself, it is common for it to bunch up, or spread out in a non-uniform manner-- again minimizing any visual enhancement--and to shift about over time.
As will be appreciated, these manners of attaching fabric to a manufactured lamp shade do not permit the quick interchange of fabrics to view various combinations. The existing art also does not contemplate the use of non-fabric materials--such as paper --as a decorative cover, in that the means for attachment are not appropriate to use on less pliable, water soluble materials.